Chapter 12: The Lovely Maiden Wu Zha

  The wine went down his throat and into his lungs, the unique softness, fragrance and sweetness of Du Kang's wine made Du He let out a sigh of relief.

  The old man with white hair was even more amazed and praised, "Great, young brother, I'll toast you again!"

  He actually poured another full bowl for Du He, and Du He drank it all in one gulp again. After finishing three bowls in a row, he finally stopped!

  "What a fine wine, yet met with such an uncouth person, what a pity!" Just as Du He was exclaiming in admiration, the white-haired old man let out a hearty shout of satisfaction, and from the next table came a sigh of emotion.

  Du He looked around, but it was a fat-headed and big-eared rich businessman.

  Du He smiled indifferently and ignored him.

  The old man with white hair also seems to disdain talking to him, completely ignoring him!

  The middle-aged man at the same table looked at Du He's appearance of not caring about anything, and couldn't help but feel very interested, even forgetting to drink the wine in his hand.

  The rich merchant stepped forward and said: "This old gentleman, this Du Kang wine is a top-grade wine. I wonder if you can spare it and sell it to..."

  He didn't finish his words and immediately fell to the ground.

  At some point, the nine-ring broadsword beside the white-haired old man had appeared in front of him, emerging silently and stealthily, as if it had been there all along. Moreover, the blade was touching the rich merchant's nose tip, its sharp edge surprisingly not causing any harm to the rich merchant.

  Du Hei An Zan: The white-haired old man took out his knife and swung it out, all of which was seen by him. The action did not have a single bit of slackness, and from start to finish the old man never turned his head back. Relying solely on his ability to discern position by sound, he was able to achieve such precision.

  The old man's martial arts skills are truly extraordinary!

  "Get out!" The old man with white hair said coldly!

  The rich man's face turned pale and white, but he didn't dare say anything else and returned to his seat.

  "Good work!" Du He exclaimed!

  "You're not bad either!" The old man's face relaxed and he smiled: "At least at your age, I was far inferior to you!"

  Du He glanced at the wine gourd with some regret.

  The old man with white hair smiled and said, "Three bowls is also the limit. If I think you're pleasing to the eye, I'll invite you to have just one bowl. Only those who truly understand how to drink wine are qualified to have three bowls. If fate permits it, next time we meet, I'll invite you again!"

  This wine can only be appreciated by drinking it all at once, if you savor it slowly and carefully, even an old man with white hair won't ask you to drink three bowls in a row.

  Du He also knew that he couldn't be too greedy, and didn't care about it either. He just started chatting with him from afar.

  The white-haired old man is a talkative and generous person with rich experiences. What he talks about broadens one's horizons.

  Middle-aged people seem a bit indifferent, not very talkative, just occasionally inserting a few sentences. But these few sentences always hit the key point.

  Before long, a young man with tattered clothes and a slender build walked into the tea shed, holding a piece of jade pendant. The quality of the jade was superior, with a bright green color, it was indeed a beautiful piece of jade.

  The rich merchant's eyes sparkled as soon as he noticed the jade in his hand.

  The young man in the middle of the tea shed looked around and said urgently, "I'm out of money on my travels, I'd like to sell this family heirloom jade to save my life. If anyone is interested, the highest bidder gets it!"

  The boy's words were as sweet as the song of the oriole, pleasant and moving to hear, yet it was a woman.

  She was only fourteen or fifteen years old, with a face and hands completely covered in black coal, so that her original appearance could no longer be seen. When she spoke, however, two rows of sparkling white teeth were revealed, which seemed utterly out of place with the rest of her body. Her eyes were pitch-black and extremely lively.

  Du He couldn't help but smile and praise her, saying that this girl was unbeatable. With one sentence, she raised the price to a high level, just like an auction in later generations.

  The rich merchant looked at the ancient jade with some greed. Having been in business for many years, how could he not tell that this was a piece of top-quality precious jade?

  "How can I tell if the jade pendant is genuine or fake? Bring it to me and let me take a look. If it's real, buying it would be no problem!" The wealthy merchant showed off his Confucian business style at this time.

  Du He saw that the rich merchant was not good at heart, and as long as this jade pendant fell into his hands, whether it was true or false, its value depended on his word, and wanting him to return it would be impossible.

  He hated this kind of wealthy but unkind merchant the most, thinking about how to help that woman and punish that merchant at the same time.

  The young girl's expression was urgent, but she didn't fall for it. Instead, she said: "Whether the jade pendant is genuine or fake can be determined by its color and texture. If this gentleman can't even tell that much, how can he possibly discern the true value of this ancient jade?"

  She saw that the rich merchant had a mind to buy it and asked: "Twenty silver coins, if you want it, sir, you can take it."

  Twenty silver coins for this jade pendant worth thirty silver coins, a profit without loss!

  But the rich merchant was greedy and opened at a price of ten silver coins.

  He saw that the girl was in urgent need of money, so he began to haggle over the price.

  Du He smiled and said, "Miss, my family runs a pawnshop. I'll take that jade pendant for 20 silver coins. If you want it back, come find me!" He saw that although the woman was young, she had a proud bone and wouldn't accept charity, so he pretended to be running a pawnshop in order to secretly help her.

  The rich merchant's expression changed slightly, and he glared at Du He angrily, saying: "You little brat, are you deliberately trying to oppose me?"

  Du He ignored him and just smiled as he took out twenty silver coins, asking: "Is it a deal?"

  The girl also knew that Du He was willing to help, and since she really needed money urgently, she nodded in agreement.

  The wealthy merchant saw that Du He completely ignored him, and became even more enraged, shouting: "You little brat, this feud is settled between us!" He sat down furiously, his eyes flashing with a cold light.

  The rich merchant initially still had some reservations about Du He's identity, but after hearing that his family ran a pawnshop, he actually thought he was easy to bully, thinking that he was just a son of a merchant who couldn't even get through the door, and wondered how to take revenge.

  Du He didn't take him seriously and asked the shopkeeper for a pen and paper, wrote a receipt, took the jade pendant, and gave the silver ingot to the girl.

  The girl saw that what he had written was actually the Du Hezi style of the Chang'an Cai Guo Gong Fu, and she stared at him with wide eyes.

  Du He made a "shh" gesture, indicating that he shouldn't reveal his identity.

  The girl nodded silently.

  Just then, another young girl rushed into the teahouse, crying out: "Sister, sister, mother...mother is dying!" As she spoke, she fell to the ground and began wailing.

  This girl was different from the previous one, she was only about ten years old, wearing simple clothes but dressed up neatly, with two ponytails hanging on both sides, a pair of bright and beautiful big eyes like precious stones inlaid on a flawless face carved out of ivory, an egg-shaped face with a small mouth that looked like a porcelain doll.

  "What's wrong!" Du He asked with concern, glancing at the porcelain doll and then looking at the girl again, wondering what her original appearance was like.

  The girl also said with a worried look: "Mother was bitten by a poisonous snake while picking wild fruits for us to eat. There is no doctor here, what should we do!"

  "I'll go take a look!" Du He and the white-haired old man said in unison, while the middle-aged man also stood up.

  The two of them exchanged a smile, apparently both were willing to help each other.

  The girl could only pin her hopes on them and brought them under the big tree opposite the teahouse.

  Pushing away the onlookers, a woman in her forties fell onto the grass, her face pale, lips slightly purple, and her calf muscles bulging.

  Du He used his waist-long sword to cut open the injured part and saw that the swollen calf had already formed a lump, with two deep small holes on top.

  The girl, seeing this, couldn't help but roll down tears and knelt down: "If you can save my mother, Wu Zhao is willing to be a cow or a horse, to repay the kindness of both of you!" The falling tears washed away the dirt on her face, revealing skin as white as sheep's fat jade.

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